Kolr's Saga
by choccybunnybecca
Summary: Trace the life of Kolr and his family in this epic saga created completely for my own entertainment and Norse Literature course.


1

There was a great farmer in Norway called Ragi Asgeirson, son off Asgeir, son of Saxi, son of Kar the unlucky. Ragi was married to Thorve, the daughter of Uler, son of Ari, son of Thrand the farmer.

Thorve only gave birth to one child, Loftr, who was sprinkled with holy water. Thorve died from illness after she gave birth to Loftr. Ragi could no longer live in Norway so he set off to the newly found Iceland with his son and all his neighbors who would go with him.

Just as Iceland came into view Ragi was taken by illness. The crew placed his body in a wooden casket and threw it into the ocean in order to choose where to settle. They followed him until his body washed onto a beach. The land was covered in rocks and trees so the land has forever been known as Jarnvidr.

One of the neighbors, Ragi, fostered Loftr since he was not over one year of age. Ragi was left in a fishing net as a young child so the community has forever been known as fish-pillow. No more events of mention happened for the next twenty-one winters.

2

When Loftr saw the passing of his twenty-first Althing, which he attended with his foster father every year since he was seven, he went to Ragi to ask him if he would or could think of a suitable match for him to wed.

"I have," Ragi Said "her name is Mari and she has recently inherited her father's massive farm at Dale. I will go with you to talk matters over.

The next day Ragi and Loftr rode out to Dale with no complications on the road. When they arrived at Dale they were well received for Ragi was well-known as an exceptional farmer and Loftr was known well for his skills at interpreting the law.

Mari's brother, Thorvald, was there and asked the purpose of this unexpected trip. Ragi told them that he intended on joining their families together. Thorvald thought this to be a great match and plans were made for the wedding festival to be in a fortnight at Dale.

Ragi and Loftr rode home that night very pleased with the outcome of their visit.

3

Now one of Thorvald's friends, Odd, also liked Mari. When he heard that Thorvald had given her to someone else he was furious. The day of the wedding he cast a curse on the marriage, because his mother had taught him the art of witchcraft at a young age, so that when the couple was truly happy they would never be able to find a day together as long as Mari and Loftr were married.

A slave of Mari heard this and ran to the farm and told Thorvald exactly what Odd had said. Thorvald gathered a group of ten men and they all set out to Odd's farmstead. When they arrived there they stoned Odd to death and road back to the festivities.

Mari asked them what they did and Thorvald told her to be very careful in her marriage because Odd had cursed it. The rest of the wedding went very well. After a week of celebration, everyone went home with plenty of food in their stomachs and many magnificent gifts. Loftr stayed with Mari at Dale.

Not long after the wedding Loftr and Mari started having children. They had two sons, Bardr and Kolr, and two daughters, Kalar and Asny.

4

Odd's younger brother, Thord, was most displeased with hearing that his brother had been killed. When he heard of his brother's curse he vowed that he would make it so.

One night Thord and a large gathering of almost 60 men rode out to Dale and set the farmstead on fire when everyone was sound asleep. By the time anyone realized what was going on Loftr and Mari were dead. The family had five slaves and each one of the slaves took one of the children since all the children were far too young to walk on their own.

All 60 men who rode out with Thord had already left by the time the slaves were escaping, but Thord was still there. Thord, who still wanted to cause the family more pain, rode over to the slave who had Kalar. He killed the slave and took Kalar as his own. All of the other slaves escaped with their lives and respective babies. They all rode to Jarnvidr and told Ragi what had happened. Ragi rode out to the local chieftain, Snorri the Priest (fromEyrbyggja saga), and set a case against Thord. It was agreed that Thord would have to come to Jarnvidr, return Kalar, and would be outlawed from Iceland for the rest of his life.

Thord was expecting to be outlawed so he, his wife Aud, all their neighbors who would come with them and Kalar sailed off as soon as they could. Just as they reached open water a massive storm started and all believed that they perished. What no one knew was that all aboard survived, even little Kalar, and made it safely to a new land. The land was covered in a thick layer of ice, but the crew was able to find a small patch to set up a farmstead and live there for the rest of their lives.

All the men that had ridden out with Thord met their end that night in one gruesome way or another. Everyone knew that this was the work of Loftr's ghost. Loftr tried to find Kalar and Thord, but could not find them so he left the world of the living once and for all.

5

All three siblings grew up together at Jarnvidr. Once Ragi passed on from old age Bardr, the eldest son, went off to the Althing to find a wife, leaving Asny in charge of the farmstead. Kolr was also leaving, but he was going plundering in far off lands in order to gain a reputation worthy of a woman.

At the end of summer, Bardr came back to Jarnvidr with a girl he had found and wed, Eydis. He also came back with Brynjolf, a man that he intended Asny to marry. That autumn there was a great deal of planning and gathering of supplies for the two weddings.

The two weddings went extremely well and everyone was very pleased with all the festivities. At the end of the celebration, everyone went home with their fill and many wonderful gifts. Asny went to the farmstead of Hellgafell and lived happily with Brynjolf for quite a while.

6

For three winters, Kolr stayed in Denmark where he had finished plundering. He had done very well for a man with a group of four other men. Once the third winter ended all the men agreed to return home to Iceland. The men waited for a good wind to start their journey. Once a wind started they left Denmark for Iceland. When they reached the open water a massive storm hit them. The ship was completely destroyed and four of the men drowned instantly. Kolr was washed onto a shore that he did not recognize.

That same night Asny awoke saying that she had just had a terrible dream. Brynjolf asked her what she had dreamed and she said this.

"I dreamed that there was a piece drift wood with five goats on top in a massive storm. Four of the goats drowned almost immediately, but one washed onto the beach just outside. This last goat was still alive, but when dawn broke it died."

No one had any idea what this dream meant, but Asny was sure that she should go to the beach. Against the wishes of everyone in the household, for there was a massive storm outside, Asny left the safety and comfort of the farmstead and walked down to the beach. There she found her brother on the beach. She managed to drag him all the way back to the farmstead where Kolr was returned to full health before the break of dawn. When Kolr awoke he was told of all that he had missed in Iceland from the past three years.

7

Over the past three years, a great deal had happened. Asny started with their late brother, Bardr. After his wedding, he and his wife quickly had a baby boy and named it Einarr, who was the finest baby in the land. Over the course of the next year, Bardr had become one of the best hay gatherers in all of Iceland. All of his neighbors were very jealous of his success, so jealous that Asny had traveled down to Jarnvidr to ask Bardr to come up to Dale, but he had thought her fears to be trivial. The next morning she left for Dale and he went back to his hay. When he returned home from a hard day's work he and his wife prepared dinner. When they were ready there was a loud knocking at the door. When Bardr opened the door he was met with a large crowd of angry neighbors who believed he was stealing all their hay, which was not true.

When they did not leave when Bardr said that he had not stolen any of the hay, Eydis came towards the door with Einarr to convince the angry mob that Bardr was innocent. At the same time one of the men in the back was so angry that he threw his spear towards Bardr hoping the spear would find its mark.

Bardr saw the spear coming and quickly ducked, but could not grab it. The spear flew past Bardr and stuck Einarr through the head and Eydis through the chest, killing them both instantly. Bardr, seeing this, became so enraged that many there swore that he showed the signs of a berserker. He lifted his own battle axe, but was too slow. A man in front had stepped forward and smashed Bardr's head in with a battle hammer, killing Bardr instantly. Bardr's skull burst and killed six men from this hit.

Everyone else quickly threw all the evidence of the crime into the farmstead and burned to place down. By the time Asny had heard of her brother's fate the men who had committed the crime had already reported to the local chieftain many horrible and false accusations against Baldr that justified their killing. Asny could do nothing and so the case was never prosecuted.

8

Asny and her husband had also been very busy over the past three years. Asny had three children by Brynjolf before he died of a mysterious illness that had come from nowhere had had killed many of the farm help as well. They had two sons, Ragni and Vigfuss, and one daughter called Dortet.

There was a new man in town, as of last year, who developed a crush on Asny. This man, Ulf the lazy, asked for Asny's hand in marriage but she had denied him. She told him that she did not need the help of a man she did not know. This had enraged the man so much that he slapped her so she fell to the ground and ran off shouting, "I curse you this day until the end of your days. Your children will never see their adult lives and you shall die a death that will never be repaid properly." No one could find this man so everyone gave up looking for him many months ago.

Kolr could not believe this and went straight to bed, telling his sister that he wished to hear more on Ulf and how he could deal with this man properly.

That night when everyone went to bed Ulf snuck into the farmstead. At first he slit the throats of all three kids. Then he went to Asny's sleeping quarters and whispered before he killed her with Kolr's sword, "You should have just said yes. You could have saved your family a lot of pain." Ulf did not get far after killing Asny. When he tried to get out he tripped over somebodies legs and fell onto a sword on the floor that killed him instantly.

When Kolr entered the room and being awakened by Ulf's clatter he said, "Clearly Ulf got what he deserved."

When everyone else woke up all they saw was Kolr's spear in his sister's chest. Everyone believed that he had killed Asny and all her children, so at the next Althing he was outlawed from Iceland for the next three years. For these three years he decided to go to the newly founded country of Greenland.

9

When Kolr arrived in Greenland he managed to find a small farmstead that was completely deserted and right next to Thord and his wife Aud. When Kolr learned of this he became close friends with his new neighbors in order to find his long lost sister.

One day Thord pulled Kolr aside and said, "I have seen you eyeing my slaves, especially my female slaves. I have one that I have use for and you can have free of charge. All you have to do is guess her name." Kolr quickly accepted this simple challenge.

For everyone in this part of Greenland they knew of this foul game. Thord would show one of his slaves and offer the chance to win that slave, but if the person guessed incorrectly the slave would be killed. Now this part of the game was never told to the contestant.

That afternoon many people gathered round to see which slave was to be killed today. When Kolr came he knew that something was amiss. He went to one person in the crowd as asked what was going on. This neighbor, not knowing that Kolr was the contestant, told Kolr everything. Kolr was shocked and went straight to Thord who already had a slave standing next to him. Kolr was about to tell Thord this game was in poor taste and should end immediately, but stopped when he saw who was next to Thord. Kolr instantly recognized his little sister Kalar in front of him. Kolr accidently said outloud, "Kalar." His little sister looked up and tried to run over to her brother, but was stabbed by Thord.

Thord gave a little chuckle and said "Sorry about that got a little excited. Should I…" He never finished his sentence because he had only hit Kalar in the shoulder, only wounding her. So when he was not watching she pulled the sword out of her shoulder and took off Thord's head in one strong slash. She looked over at her brother and said, "I think he was getting ahead of himself.

With that Kalar and Kolr returned to his farmstead where they lived out the three years of Kolr's outlawry.

10

When Kalar and Kolr returned to Iceland everyone welcomed the two back with nothing but happiness. A local sorcerer had done his best to free the two from their curse and thanks to all the rune sticks everyone carved they were both married well and had many children and many more generations of full and happy families. Once the siblings partners both died off, Kalar moved to Dale, where Kolr had made a living, where they both lived out the remainder of their lives together. One morning the farmworkers found Kalar and Kolr in each other's embrace, both dead. Their bodies were buried and a burial mound was erected that can still be seen to this day. This here marks the end of Kolr's Saga.


End file.
